Cancer Diagnosed: Origin Gallbladder; Locally Advanced Tumor; In Liver

Posted by hammadshahbaz @hammadshahbaz, Feb 23 8:20am

My father has been diagnosed with cancer, I need little help to understand his current condition and treatment advise. The origin of cancer is gallbladder, he had pain in his upper abdomen so we did ultrasound where we detect stones but some evidence of nodes as well. Then we did CT scan and found out that the lower part of liver is very much defected. Then we did Biopsy and he diagnosed with N1 malignant locally advanced cancer. His CA19-9 is above 6000. Now doctors are giving me 3 choices, First if you leave it as it is then the life expectancy could be around a year. Second if we go for surgery which is most likely not preferable by the doctors because according to them the cancer it seems to be spread very much and it looks like to be very less chance of complete extraction of cancer, as it seems like to be spread on microscopic level and if we go for surgery then the chances occurrence of cancer is very high and this time it could be more lethal as the patient is going through a major surgery (extraction of gallbladder and part of liver) this could drop the life expectancy to few months but as per rare circumstances by any chance if the surgery become a success then it could increase the life expectancy very much. THIRD option is to first go for chemo, but it a mutual consensus among our family to not to go for chemo before the surgery as we already suffering through a trauma of my mother's death due to breast cancer, she was also advised for first chemo before surgery and it went Miserable.

So my humble request to you all is to suggest me a very sane decision keeping in mind the above scenarios. Thanking you all in advance for the generosity.

CA19-9 above 6000
locally advanced N1 cancer
origin gallbladder
stones in gallbladder
adjacent defected organ is liver

**** I am attaching CT scan and Biopsy report

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How old is your father? Is he able to weigh in about what he wants to do? Do you know what his wishes might be? It sounds as if the family is caring and looking for a good decision. Since we're not medical professionals here, I can't respond on the scan and biopsy level. But on the emotional level, it seems you might be leaning towards the first option. If so, get palliative care and hospice in place so you have enough support. You might also ask a third party--like a social worker or a clergy person--to help clarify how this decision would work. But a lot should depend on what your father prefers. Does he have any written directives? I hope things go smoothly, and that you get helpful answers.

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@mir123

How old is your father? Is he able to weigh in about what he wants to do? Do you know what his wishes might be? It sounds as if the family is caring and looking for a good decision. Since we're not medical professionals here, I can't respond on the scan and biopsy level. But on the emotional level, it seems you might be leaning towards the first option. If so, get palliative care and hospice in place so you have enough support. You might also ask a third party--like a social worker or a clergy person--to help clarify how this decision would work. But a lot should depend on what your father prefers. Does he have any written directives? I hope things go smoothly, and that you get helpful answers.

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I would suggest a second opinion from an oncologist who specializes in this type of cancer. Difficult to say anything more definite than that. I don’t think there would be a problem with chemo in advance of other treatment in principle. I think you need an expert second opinion as soon as possible. Best of luck and best wishes to your family.

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